WSU (2-1 / 0-0)
at Colorado (1-3 / 0-0)
This is it, Wazzu. You want to be the surprise bowl team of 2011 you need to win this game.

Who do Wildcat fans want to win?
WSU. North beating South, and Team UA Doesn’t Play beating Team UA Plays.
Washington (3-1 / 1-0) at Utah (2-1 / 0-1)
The Huskies are trying to make a statement that Stanford and Oregon aren’t the only quality teams in the North. Utah needs to hold serve at home if it wants to keep pace with ASU.

Who do Wildcat fans want to win?
Washington. North beating South.

OSU (0-3 / 0-1) at ASU (3-1 / 1-0)
Any chance of a Sun Devil letdown with two big road games coming up? It’s probably more likely to be 40 degrees at kickoff.

Who do Wildcat fans want to win?
OSU. North beating South, and Whoever’s Playing ASU beating ASU.

UCLA (2-2 / 1-0) at Stanford (3-0 / 1-0)
The Bruins won on the road last week but they’re going from the only 0-3 team to the only 3-0 team.

Who do Wildcat fans want to win?
Stanford. Cat fans have to be feeling pretty good about this one.

Cal (3-1 / 0-1) – bye
The Bears almost pulled off the comeback at Washington and they have an extra week to prepare for Oregon. They may want to take two extra weeks.

Oregon (3-1 / 1-0) – bye
Both Stanford and Oregon took the week off after playing Arizona. Scoring 12 touchdowns wears you out.

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The USC game last year was when the losing streak turned into a full-fledged slide. The Stanford and Oregon losses were not unexpected (although the 7-1 Wildcats had expected to be more competitive against the Cardinal) but the USC loss at home was when the Arizona faithful started saying, “Uh-oh.”

Can the game that accelerated the slide in 2010 be the one that ends it in 2011?

You have to build on the 31 points scored against Oregon, no matter when they came. There’s encouragement in Nick Foles throwing three touchdown passes including two in the red zone.

The key this week is going to be efficiency on offense. USC will be able to run the ball. The Trojans are probably going to dominate time of possession. When Arizona gets the ball it needs to get points.

The UA defense also needs to find a way to force a couple turnovers. Even one would be an improvement over the past two games. If you can’t force punts you need to gamble and create some takeaways.

Show some fight, play with energy, catch passes (and any available interceptions) and the Cats will have a shot at ending the ride on the slide.

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Scott Terrell wants to replace this chute with a ladder. Climb on Twitter and Facebook.